Digital system takes clearest images of space

Tue 4 Sep 2007, 11:00 AM AEST

Astronomers from the US and Britain have obtained some of the clearest pictures ever taken of space.

The digital system called 'Lucky' adjusts pictures taken at California's Mount Palomar Observatory for atmospheric distortion, producing images twice as sharp as those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The technique has been used to produce detailed images of the Cat's Eye Nebula and the star cluster M13, which is 25,000 light years away.